Maat
<p><b>Maat</b> or <b>Ma'at</b> was the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt" title="Ancient Egypt">ancient Egyptian</a> concept of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth" title="Truth">truth</a>, balance, order, harmony, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law" title="Law">law</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morality" title="Morality">morality</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justice" title="Justice">justice</a>. </p>
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Maat was also personified as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goddess" title="Goddess">goddess</a> regulating the stars, seasons, and the actions of both mortals and the deities, who set the order of the universe from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_%28cosmogony%29" title="Chaos (cosmogony)">chaos</a> at the moment of creation. </p>
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Her ideological counterpart was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isfet_%28Egyptian_mythology%29" title="Isfet (Egyptian mythology)">Isfet</a>.
The earliest surviving records indicating that Maat is the norm for nature and society, in this world and the next, were recorded during the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Kingdom" class="mw-redirect" title="Old Kingdom">Old Kingdom</a>, the earliest substantial surviving examples being found in the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_Texts" title="Pyramid Texts">Pyramid Texts</a> of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unas#The_Pyramid_Texts" title="Unas">Unas</a> (ca. 2375 BCE and 2345 BCE).<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maat#cite_note-1">[1]</a></sup></p>
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Later, as a goddess in other traditions of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_pantheon" class="mw-redirect" title="Egyptian pantheon">Egyptian pantheon</a>, where most goddesses were paired with a male aspect, her masculine counterpart was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thoth" title="Thoth">Thoth</a>, as their attributes are similar. In other accounts, Thoth was paired off with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seshat" title="Seshat">Seshat</a>, goddess of writing and measure, who is a lesser known deity.</p>
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After her role in creation and continuously preventing the universe from returning to chaos, her primary role in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_mythology" title="Egyptian mythology">Egyptian mythology</a> dealt with the weighing of souls (also called the weighing of the heart) that took place in the underworld,
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duat" title="Duat">Duat</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maat#cite_note-2">[2]</a></sup> </p>
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Her feather was the measure that determined whether the souls (considered to reside in the heart) of the departed would reach the paradise of afterlife successfully.
<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharaoh" title="Pharaoh">Pharaohs</a> are often depicted with the emblems of Maat to emphasise their role in upholding the laws of the Creator.<sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maat#cite_note-3">[3]</a></sup></p>